Other influential people in the list include: Sir Tim Berners Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web; Nicola Mendelsohn, head of EMEA operations at Facebook; Sir James Dyson, inventor of the dual cyclone bagless vacuum cleaner and the retired footballer David Beckham.

Since Westlake and co-founder Luke Lang launched Crowdcube in 2011, the platform has raised just under £55 million for 188 businesses across the UK, equivalent to raising £1569 every second over the last four years.

Speaking about the accolade, Westlake said: “This is a real honour. We are proud to have challenged the traditional finance sector and created a vibrant new market for entrepreneurs seeking finance and investors.”

“Britain has led the world in financial services for centuries and it is now the turn of ambitious young and innovative businesses, like Crowdcube, to continue this tradition.”